Upon His Back
by Monte-chan
Summary: A slight twist on the Kazekage Rescue arc's finale. A one-shot inspired by, and serving as a prequel to, "A Talk." Featuring Fem!Gaara.


Author's Note: _Thought or Emphasis_ ; **Flashback** ; _**Thought or Emphasis in Flashback**_

I don't own _Naruto_. I only own my dreams from the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Speaking of which, Gaara's Tsukuyomi dream was downright adorable!

Read and review.

* * *

 **Naruto: Upon His Back**

A One-Shot

 _Where am I?_

Gaara was lost.

An indeterminable time had passed since Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, fought against the blonde man in the red-cloud coat to protect her home, the Village Hidden in the Sand.

The last thing she remembered clearly was an explosion, the result of the red-cloud man's special weapon. After that, her mind blearily recalled a stone statue, and pain… so much pain… yet it was only for an instant.

Now she was here, where a void of white stretched in every direction.

Gaara could handle ninja; she had been killing since before she could walk. They and civilians fell to her sand and former madness thanks to the tailed beast inside her...

 _I cannot feel it!_

Shukaku had quieted its murderous whispers ever since their rampage in the forest near the Village Hidden in the Leaves, where its bloodlust and Gaara's pain were tempered by another certain Jinchuriki. Now, however, the One-Tailed Tanuki's very presence was absent.

Gaara's sand could bore through stone if she willed it as well, her absolute offense and defense improving over the years. It also had more constructive uses—her renovations to the Sand had garnered much good will during her rise to the position of Kage.

But this...

She was but a child before this empty infinity.

For the first time in a long time, she felt fear.

Sea-green eyes searched for a way out, any guiding light—but no matter where she looked, there was only the void.

 _I'm alone._

Throughout her life, Gaara had associated loneliness with darkness, in no small part due to the time she spent as a child cradled by the Sand's shadows and back alleys.

Loneliness had a new color now.

 _I must get out of here!_

There had to be somewhere, someone to turn to. She closed her eyes, focused, hoped to find an answer.

Suddenly, from the void, a voice echoed.

"GAARA!"

It sounded familiar…

"GAARA!"

She knew the voice, and turned her head this way and that to find its source.

"GAARA!"

On a turn numbered somewhere in the dozens, she found it.

A shocking figure of orange, topped with sunny blond, stood out in the whiteness.

It could only be one person.

 _Naruto!_

He looked different from the young boy her memories knew. His body was taller, his face leaner; even his eyes looked bluer somehow.

 _Is he real?_

He reached out.

He waited for her.

 _Should I?_

The doubt vanished the moment it appeared.

The boy may have been different, but he still had a name and a face she could trust. After all, she was quite familiar with change herself.

 _He changed me._

That reason alone gave her the strength to reach out to his hand…

…and grasp it.

* * *

She was alive.

She was in the real, living world.

And she was surrounded!

In a plain in the Land of Rivers, the Kazekage awoke astonished. Scores of Sand ninja, some sitting, some kneeling, some stern, some sobbing, stayed with her as she regained consciousness—among them, her elder brother Kankurō and her elder sister Temari.

They all had waited for her return.

The Leaf ninja sent to rescue her were there at the fore. The gray-haired man, Kakashi of the Sharingan, looked as if he could barely move; the pink-haired girl, who Gaara would later learn was named Sakura Haruno, sat tearfully over the prone body of Elder Chiyo—no doubt, a casualty of battle.

She looked at Naruto again, still grinning the whole time.

"Welcome back, Gaara."

She did not even have to guess.

"You saved me."

"Yep! Me and the others over there."

"Thank you."

She was Kazekage, however; she could not show weakness. She began to walk over to her village's people, stumbling along the way.

"Lady Gaara! Are you alright?" One of her subjects, a brown-haired kunoichi, shared her concern.

"I am fine, Matsuri. I am only a bit…" She teetered on her feet, before her body gave out. "…tired…"

"LADY GAARA!" Matsuri cried, set to sprint towards her mistress.

The Kazekage's body set to meet the ground, but a benevolent hand stopped their union.

"I gotcha!"

Her mind jolted awake at the contact. "Naruto?"

He turned her around, keeping a gentle grip on her arm in case she lost balance again.

"I can walk."

"No, you can't." He shook his head. "The Sand's three days away. You won't make it."

"But I must-"

"You don't have to act tough for them!" He figured it out. "You already gave your all before saving your village, right?"

He had heard the story of Gaara's efforts against the ninja he battled earlier, Deidara. Knowing she was a Kage before him made Naruto a little jealous, but he couldn't help but be happy for her.

"I did."

"Well, there ya go! You just take a load off! I'll get you back home, easy!"

Knowing that they tried to kill her made him want to shove one of those bird bombs down the guy's throat. His anger ceased, though, knowing that she was finally safe.

He'd personally make sure she'd stay that way on the way back.

He kneeled and set up his arms for her.

"Hop on!"

A moment of silence fell onto the plain, before:

"EEEEEEEEEHHHHHH!?"

A wave of outrage washed over the Sand ninja.

"The impertinence of that Leaf brat!" Naruto didn't know the word 'impertinence,' but sensed it was a bad thing.

"How _dare_ he offer to lay a hand on Lady Gaara?"

"Quickly, someone, get her a stretcher for the trip!"

Masking her mild confusion, Gaara mounted her new steed, who picked her up with little effort. As if by instinct, her arms wrapped around him for balance.

He felt her heart quicken. "Are you okay back there?"

"I…"

She had never been this close to Naruto before, not without an imminent attack involved. She could feel his body heat, his heartbeat against hers. She could take in his scent if she wanted, a combination of the earth around them, his dried blood, and some other aroma entirely his own.

If she angled her head properly, she could even make out the single strands of sunflower hair wildly topping his head.

An urge to touch it came upon her. The urge escaped, but the heat rising to her face refused to leave.

This was new.

"I don't know…"

Matsuri's keen hearing heard her. "Milady, you're uncomfortable!" The girl took her Kage's reddened cheeks to be a sign of fever. "I'll take you off him right now-"

"NO!" A tiny blast of killing intent froze the kunoichi in place. "I will not move. Naruto Uzumaki will be my escort to the Sand."

A foolish subject attempted to object. "But, Lady Gaara, he won't be able to-"

"Naruto Uzumaki _will_ escort me!" The tiny blast became a heavy wave pouring over them all. "Does anyone else have any objections?"

She only heard silence, satisfied.

"Very well." Her arms tightened slightly around her carrier's body. "Shall we go, Naruto?"

"Sure!" He wasn't totally sure what just happened there, but went with it.

Minutes later, an alliance of Sand and Leaf carried themselves on the three-day journey to the Land of Wind.

Temari had caught the whole event, trying to stop her mouth from dropping open. She knew Gaara respected the kid, but she hadn't expected this. It finally occurred to the wind user that while her little sister may have been Kazekage, she was also a girl.

 _Falling for some boy from the Leaf?_

Strangely, a lazy shadow user came to mind.

 _Imagine that._

Sakura had not heard the whole thing, focused on the proper way to deal with Elder Chiyo, but she could see the reaction when the Sand villagers silenced their protests.

And she could certainly see the outcome on the Kazekage's face, laying on Naruto's shoulder as she slept.

 _It's hard to believe that she used to be our enemy. She looks so peaceful now._

 _Wait…_

… _the Kazekage at peace…_

… _with_ _Naruto_ _?_

Sakura shook the thought away.

"Nah, it couldn't be."

* * *

"May the desert winds guide you home safely."

Two days of recovery later, and Gaara was back on her feet. As she figured, Shukaku was indeed gone, removed by the Akatsuki for reasons yet unknown. As far as she, her family, and the medical ninja knew, Gaara's power over sand went with the beast.

She would have to find a new way to protect her people from now on.

Still, she stood strong, and stayed formal as the Leaf ninja left her village's entrance. Only the slightest bow was afforded, as was expected of those with her status.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Kazekage." Kakashi and Sakura bowed low, as expected of them.

"Yeah, it was awesome seeing you again!" Naruto defied expectations, nodding back with a grin. "Well, see ya later!"

He moved his hand forth to shake.

She stalled.

She wanted to take his hand, but…

 _This… this is wrong somehow. I want…_

She was supposed to be formal.

She was the Kazekage, cordial to her subjects, distant to outsiders. That was what her elders taught her, at least.

And yet…

 _I want… more?_

Naruto, meanwhile, took her silence as a message. He knew Gaara was a quiet girl, whether speaking to him about killing Naruto's wayward rival in the past, or about the Sand's weather and imports from the Leaf in the present.

He had learned on his travels with Jiraiya that some girls were like that. Come to think of it, he'd figured that out earlier—Gaara kinda reminded him of that Hyuuga girl from when he was a kid... Hinata, he recalled. She was nice, if a little weird; maybe Gaara was that way too.

Still, if Gaara wasn't going to shake his hand, he wouldn't force it. "Well, that's okay." He put his hand back to his side, and turned away.

On impulse, she reached out.

"Wait!"

Something held Naruto back.

"Huh?"

He looked down.

A tendril of sand, rising from Gaara's position, wrapped around Naruto's wrist and forearm. A further look down saw a bit of sand creep over his feet, trying to root him to his spot.

Her power over sand had not left her after all.

The sand gave her courage to cast the rules aside and walk forward.

Naruto felt a familiar weight on his back, and a pair of arms around his waist.

He heard her message loud and clear.

"Be well, Naruto."

"You too, Gaara."

As quickly as she embraced him, she was gone, retreated into her domain.

"Naruto!" If Sakura had any doubt before, it was gone now. "Do you have any idea what just happened!?"

"Of course!"

She hoped he'd understood. If anyone in the Sand saw what just happened, rumors would surely spread, maybe even back to the Leaf… and who knows how that would end up.

"I just said goodbye to a good friend!" He squinted. "What, is that wrong, Sakura?"

"You…" She was awestruck at how dense he was. "Wow."

"What?"

She only shook her head, walking ahead.

"You don't understand girls at all, Naruto."

"What?"

She just kept going, leaving the Kazekage's hero in the desert.

Clueless.

"WHAT DID I DO?"

 **END**


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